


Sex Education, Avonlea Style

by Rozmund



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, First Love, Kissing, everyone finding out about Anne and Gilbert, fun awkwardness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-23 19:08:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21325171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rozmund/pseuds/Rozmund
Summary: Anne and Gilbert get caught in the barn in a romantic moment, and hilarity ensues.This still fits within canon through season 3, episode 7, but I've assumed that Anne and Gilbert start a romantic relationship by the summer before they leave for Queen's. I've also skipped over dealing with Winnie and I'm assuming that somehow that relationship was resolved. I like the character just fine but I'm tired of it as a plot contrivance so I'm waving it away. :)
Relationships: Anne Shirley & Gilbert Blythe, Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 34
Kudos: 626





	1. Looking Back, It Was Inevitable

Though of course they expected to reveal the truth of their courtship someday, Anne and Gilbert decided that it would be a bit more…romantical to keep it a secret for a few weeks. More importantly, a secret courtship would prevent Marilla from asking quite so many questions about Anne’s whereabouts during the warm, hazy summer before she went to Queen’s, and that suited Anne just fine. The pair agreed to tell their families the truth just before they departed for school, and before then they planned to act as they always had when they were around others. When they were alone, well, they acted much as any other young couple newly in love. Anne began to think that the young people of Avonlea should probably have coordinated some kind of guide to secret places around town by now so that the next generation wouldn’t have to go through the work of finding each densely shaded tree and half-fallen shed suitable for romantic trysts themselves, but for now her close attention to the details of Avonlea’s landscape were serving her new relationship quite well.

Then, one still August afternoon, as the bees buzzed lazily over late summer blooms and the air hinted at a nighttime storm, their clever plan fell apart in spectacular fashion. Marilla and Mrs. Lynde had just departed for town, and Matthew was busy tending a far away field. Gilbert dropped by Green Gables to return something (it seemed he and Anne were forever borrowing and returning things, these days, but Marilla rather suspected that something would eventually happen between them and decided to ignore their poorly-constructed excuses to see each other in favor of letting the young people enjoy their flirtation). They hadn’t really intended to start kissing in the barn, but Anne supposed, looking back, that it was inevitable for a couple in the first blush of romance. (It turned out, in their case, that it was inevitable in every stage of their romance, though she did not know it at the time. Anne Shirley-Cuthbert is a passionate individual, after all, and Gilbert was not one to complain about that.)

They also really should have heard the footsteps coming, but young people in love are also quite prone to distraction where the object of their affection is concerned. And so it was that Marilla and Mrs. Lynde, returned early from their trip to retrieve a forgotten item, found the two of them standing with barely a whisper between them, Anne leaning back against the wall of the barn, and Gilbert doing his very best to appreciate a delicate spot just below her ear.

Mrs. Lynde’s shriek was such that Matthew came running from the field, afraid that Anne had been injured in some way. By the time he reached the barn, Mrs. Lynde was marching forcefully in the direction of the road, Marilla trailing frantically behind her.

“I am bringing Bash back to this house right now to straighten this boy out! Imagine allowing him to behave in such a forward manner with a young lady! And Anne! We’d better have a serious conversation with both of them right now before you end up having to tend to a baby in this house, Marilla.”

Anne turned to Matthew in horror, and witnessed as the man stared at the ground, looking very much like he would like the earth to swallow him whole. “Matthew,” she started awkwardly, “that is not at all what was happening! We were just –.” Anne decided that she didn’t really know how to end that sentence in a manner that would improve the situation overmuch, so she buried her face in her hands and gave up. Gilbert surveyed the scene in front of him and tried to determine if he would ever be allowed to visit Green Gables again.

Just before they reached the end of the lane, Mrs. Lynde still leading the way, Marilla shouted back, “Matthew, keep an eye on them until we come back!”

The only way Anne could be sure that Matthew had heard this order was that his already stunned eyes widened just a touch more. Eventually, the three of them trudged over to the porch and sat on the steps, lapsing into excruciating silence. At one point, Gilbert tried to reach out a comforting hand to Anne, since her horrified expression had not changed from the moment Mrs. Lynde spoke. Anne quietly pushed him away with a pointed nod in Matthew’s direction, afraid that poor man would see and feel even more mortified than he already did. As it was, she worried that Matthew would never see his barn quite the same way again.

. . .

Bash was just dozing on the sofa while Dellie napped, grateful for a few quiet moments to himself, when he heard a sharp rap on the door. Wiping the last bits of sleep from his eyes, he opened the door to find an outraged Mrs. Lynde and a confusingly bashful Marilla standing on the front porch.

“You must come back to Green Gables immediately and deal with your…lecherous charge!” Mrs. Lynde demanded by way of greeting.

“What?!” was Bash’s only reply before he heard Dellie’s cries. After he had collected the poor child, who was more than a little rumpled and unhappy at having her last little dream so loudly interrupted, he followed Mrs. Lynde and Marilla back to Green Gables. Mrs. Lynde kept up a brisk pace as Bash struggled to learn just exactly what had happened to warrant such a dramatic turn in his otherwise peaceful afternoon.

“We found Gilbert in the barn behaving in a scandalous fashion with Anne!” Mrs. Lynde exclaimed. Bash turned to Marilla, wide-eyed. He had suspected that the two of them were up to something, but he knew Gilbert was a responsible sort and he wasn’t worried about things going too far.

Marilla, looking very much like she would have preferred to avoid this conversation for the rest of her life, glanced up at Bash briefly. “They were kissing,” she helpfully added, with a face that suggested quite a bit less cause for concern on her part than Mrs. Lynde’s excited utterings would have indicated. Bash, now getting a much clearer picture of what had happened, struggled to suppress a smile.

_Stupid Blythe_, he thought ruefully. If only the boy hadn’t been so secretive, he might have kissed Anne all he wanted at their house and none of this would be happening.

How had Blythe managed to make courting Anne even more frustrating for Bash than not courting Anne? At least before Bash only had to put up with the boy’s ridiculous, starry-eyed looks and purposefully vague statements. Now he had Mrs. Lynde yammering at him about proprieties and lechery, and Bash began to despair that the woman would find the energy in her to continue in this fashion for quite some time.

“They weren’t _just_ kissing. He was…indecently close and they – well I’ve never seen the like of it,” Mrs. Lynde continued in a huff.

“You birthed twelve children and raised ten, including several who courted while still in your home, Rachel. I really find that very hard to believe,” Marilla replied dryly. She thought it rather generous that she did not mention the one or two grandchildren of Rachel’s who had arrived somewhat before their parents’ nine-month wedding anniversary.

As they neared the house and saw three very uncomfortable figures still sitting on the porch, Bash whispered to Marilla, “Why is Mrs. Lynde still here? I think we can handle this.”

Marilla leaned over and whispered back, “If you can think of a way to convince her to leave now that won’t result in her running to town this minute and sharing her thoughts about Gilbert’s…behavior with everyone she meets, I’d love to hear it.”

_Oh dear_, Bash thought as he neared closer to Gilbert and Anne and witnessed their very nervous faces, _that’s a very good point_.


	2. Future Doctor Gilbert Will Not Stand for Scientific Inaccuracy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rachel "Abstinence Only" Lynde speaks her mind a bit too much.

Four adults, two young lovers, and one still disgruntled baby trudged into the Green Gables kitchen. Anne and Gilbert sat in chairs next to each other, while Mrs. Lynde paced in front of them as though holding a trial.

“This is not a community that accepts such…improprieties in young people,” she began. “Imagine what might have happened if we hadn’t returned just then.”

Matthew suddenly rose from the chair he occupied near the stove, gently lifted a squirming Dellie from Bash’s lap, and said, “I think I’ll go entertain the baby for a bit outside,” before departing for the garden. Marilla considered that she might need to build him some kind of shelter out there, since it was entirely possible he would not return to the kitchen before winter.

Marilla tried to interrupt this tirade but Rachel simply continued. “Wait, I need the baby to stay so that these two can contemplate the full consequences of their actions!”

Anne and Gilbert might have looked a bit guilty before, but now they were merely confused. “Um, we were _kissing_, Mrs. Lynde. I’m sorry if you think that is not proper, but I’m not aware of any terrible consequences of kissing,” Gilbert finally said, unable to figure out how to get himself out of this nightmare any other way.

“Kissing leads straight to babies!” Rachel exclaimed.

“Mrs. Lynde,” Gilbert replied with rather less respect than he normally tried to display to his elders, “I am studying to be a doctor so you and I both know that statement is not accurate.”

“Well it might as well be! And to think, this poor innocent girl doesn’t know that. She probably thought she was walking straight on the path to hedonism, and you just let her!”

Anne wasn’t going to let them talk about her like a child. “I know perfectly well how babies are created, thank you!”

Now Mrs. Lynde turned first to Anne, then back to Gilbert, color rising further. “Did you _tell her_?! Well, I’ve never heard of young people discussing anything so…so…inappropriate and scandalous!”

Gilbert, in fact, had not been the one to inform Anne of any such thing and had no idea where she learned this information. He had a vague thought that at some point he probably should find out just exactly what she _did_ know, if only because the conversation before him suggested that most people gave young ladies an impression of reproduction that was woefully inadequate.

“No, he didn’t,” Anne replied, “but does it make any difference that I know? I don’t want any children right now so isn’t it best that I know how to avoid having any?”

Mrs. Lynde was turning positively purple. “If you avoided any improper interactions with young men, then you wouldn’t have to worry about it!”

“But what’s an improper interaction? Ru – _someone_ from school thought you could have a baby if you just touched a boy! Imagine, every girl in Avonlea school worried for a moment after dance practice that any number of boys from our class had just fathered our children!”

Bash had been trying to maintain a sober demeanor but couldn’t stop his laughter at this point, and Gilbert was left to wonder just what the hell had happened after that dance lesson. _That can’t really be true, can it_? he wondered, but then he remembered Anne’s stunning question about infertility at church the following Sunday and concluded with alarm that it probably was.

Marilla was not at all looking forward to discussing any aspect of reproduction with Anne in further detail, but she was also a bit concerned to learn that the female population of Avonlea apparently thought they could end up with child by any man they happened to stumble into. “Rachel, I think it would be more appropriate for me to discuss this with Anne privately. As you so _wisely_ pointed out,” she continued, hoping that she could flatter Rachel into silence, “this is not a good conversation to have in mixed company.”

“That may be on some of the…particulars,” Rachel allowed, “but they both must understand that going down the path of physical affection is a slippery slope to undeniably sinful behavior. And another thing,” she added, by now so deep into her outrage that she was prepared to invent new offenses where none existed, “do the two of you run around town doing this with everyone? Has the entire town been swept up in this lechery?”

“What?” Gilbert exclaimed. “We are courting. Neither of us are ‘running around’ with anyone else.” It wasn’t the most romantic declaration of their status, but Gilbert certainly wasn’t going to let Mrs. Lynde insinuate anything about Anne that wasn’t true.

“Well you shouldn’t encourage your friends this way, when you are all so young and unable to marry anytime soon. I do believe I saw some other young people exchanging a kiss at the fair, though I couldn’t see who it was from so far away!” How fortunate for Diana that she was spared from enduring this nonsense by Mrs. Lynde’s poor long-distance eyesight.

“Rachel, you and I are both well aware that the youth of Avonlea did not suddenly stumble upon the idea of kissing just because Anne or Gilbert suggested it,” Marilla deadpanned, still hoping that allowing Rachel to rant for a bit would cool her off enough to convince her to keep the entire matter to herself, but unable to let another silly suggestion go by without comment.

"You," Rachel continued, suddenly turning to Bash since her last point hadn't gone her way. "Did you know about all this? I would have expected you to teach him better."

"No, I didn't know" he answered honestly, grateful for once that the answer was true. "But I don't have any reason to think that their behavior has gotten out of hand. And I really doubt the two of them have been sharing too much with their friends. This one," he gestured at Gilbert, "gives out so little information that he should serve his country as a spy."

Gilbert shot him a look that suggested it was not the time for Bash's usual mockery, but considering that Bash was currently stuck being lectured about sex by Rachel Lynde, of all people, Bash rather thought that assessment was incorrect.

They didn't have time to continue their silent battle, though, because Rachel was not nearly finished. "Well, if they become too easy with their affections to each other, there’s no telling how it will ruin the girls for marriage. Look at Anne! If she gives into him too easily, then he’ll have no need to bother with her anymore, will he?” Anne was fully prepared to respond to that incredible insult herself, but she also was a little bit pleased to see that Gilbert was fuming mad and about to speak when Mrs. Lynde decided to hammer home her point just a little further.

“I mean, it might have been that I saw Gilbert kissing that blonde Charlottetown girl at the fair, hmm? How do we know he won’t use Anne and just toss her aside for any prettier, more elegant lady he finds appealing?” Rachel finished her statement in a satisfied manner, missing that her harsh observation had sucked the oxygen out of the room.

Poor Anne, tears already streaming down her cheeks by the time Rachel stopped talking, fairly flew out of the kitchen and back out to the barn. Gilbert, face white and panicked, soon followed without a word, apparently deciding that saving his relationship with Anne was more important at that moment than appeasing the disgruntled adults who surrounded him. Bash had been fairly amused up until this point but now looked rather upset, and he exchanged looks with Marilla.

Marilla cleared her throat awkwardly as Rachel absorbed the effect of her words. “Well,” Marilla started, “I don’t think we need to worry about the two of them getting into more trouble today. Perhaps we should let Anne calm down and I’ll talk to her again tomorrow.”

“Yes, well, perhaps you’re right,” Mrs. Lynde replied, trying to maintain a dignified look to cover her worry that she had gone too far.

“And Rachel, er, as long as we aren’t entirely sure whether this courtship will survive whatever…discussion the two of them are having right now, perhaps it would be best if you kept this to yourself.”

Mrs. Lynde might be a sour old gossip, but she also sincerely loved Anne in her own way and secretly despaired at the thought that she might have caused the girl any lasting heartache. “Of course, Marilla. Well, I still need to go to town today, but perhaps I should go myself and let you – well, someone needs to stay with them.” Mrs. Lynde left quietly (a feat she hardly ever achieved), and Marilla made some tea for Bash in silence as they both tried to figure out how to salvage this mess.


	3. Mrs. Lynde's Lecture Works Not at All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gilbert settles Anne's doubts, and everyone agrees that Mrs. Lynde should not be a sex ed teacher.

Gilbert found Anne in a dark corner of the barn, balled up against a wall, thin shoulders still shaking with sobs. He breathed a small sigh of relief when she allowed him to settle beside her, gather her up into his arms, and stroke her back while she continued to cry against his shoulder. Soon the tears began to subside, though she still wouldn’t look at him.

“You know nothing that Rachel said is true,” he finally started a bit desperately. “Winnie and I – you already know what happened. Please, I –“

“I know, I'm not crying about Winnie,” she said, voice still thick with emotion. “It’s just – you think I don’t wonder? If you should be with someone ever more beautiful and elegant than I can ever hope to be? Someone with wavy blonde hair who won’t ever argue with you? Who wouldn’t admit to a room full of people that she knows exactly how reproduction works? How can I not wonder, when other people obviously see it too?”

Incredibly, the reason for Anne’s upset turned out to be even more painful and difficult than Gilbert had anticipated. He closed his eyes in frustration that Rachel Lynde had ever dared to make his Anne feel this way.

“Anne, don’t you think that Ruby Gillis fits the description you just gave pretty closely?” he said, rushing along to his next sentence when Anne’s face suggested that he was at grave risk of failing to make his point properly. “I’m saying, we all knew she liked me for years. If what I wanted was a blond-haired girl who wouldn’t argue with me, don’t you think I would have courted her a long time ago?” Gilbert held his breath until Anne nodded as though he should continue.

He turned her slightly in his arms to face him more directly, captured her chin lightly, and looked straight into her eyes. “Instead, a red-haired girl whacked me over the head and I couldn’t get her out of my mind no matter how hard I tried.”

“What - why did you try?!”

“Because she was yelling at me a lot so I thought she didn’t like me!” he said teasingly. He pulled her face slightly forward. “I like,” he begin, kissing her forehead, “fiery hair,” …cheeks, “soft skin,” …nose, “passion,” …and lips, “and just a bit of…hedonism.” By the time he was done she was so affected that she barely caught his words, although she definitely did not miss that last bit.

“I love _you_, and I don’t want you to be anyone else. I’m certainly not going to give you up just because we’ve kissed. What sense does that even make? Who would stop kissing a girl who is, let’s be honest, _unbelievable_ at kissing?” His lips were still only a hair’s breadth away from hers, and she rewarded this praise with a soft kiss of her own. He was more than happy to take this as a sign that he should continue, and slid a hand behind her neck to guide her a bit closer.

Neither of them could have said how long they remained in this manner, having no desire for any babies at the moment but also no desire to go back to a world where they did not seek out each other’s embrace. For all her worries about impropriety, Mrs. Lynde had forgotten that hardly any lovers can be stopped from expressing love for long.

Somehow Mrs. Lynde’s excruciating lecture about inappropriate kissing had ended, ironically, with the young lovers locked into an even more intimate embrace than when the whole thing started. It was best that she never learned her sex education class had not remotely had the effect she intended.

Bash peeked through a gap in the door, just to make sure that the conversation was not going entirely badly, then stepped back as quietly as he could and took several large strides away from the barn as quickly as possible. Marilla was waiting for him on the porch. “Uh, I think they’re going to be fine but also…I wouldn’t bother going back there to check on them again.” Bash stared at the sky to avoid giving away too much, though really it still was no cause for any fuss. Marilla smiled slightly and rolled her eyes.

“To be young, I suppose,” she said. “I’m not really worried about them,” she finally continued. “Gilbert has always been a good boy, and Anne, well, she is ...herself. She wouldn't stand for being pressured into something that made her uncomfortable.”

“I feel should I tell you for Gilbert’s sake that I’m certain Anne does not need to be concerned about his relationship with Miss Rose. Whatever their friendship, I live with the boy and I am sure he’s been disgustingly in love with Anne for a long time.”

Marilla nodded simply. “I didn’t really think anything of that. I knew his father well and John Blythe would never raise a son to be callous with a girl’s feelings.”

Bash raised his eyebrows a bit. “I didn’t know you knew him well.”

Her eyes were far away for a moment, lost in memory. “I suppose he was my beau, at one time, though circumstance eventually ended the relationship. Watching Anne and Gilbert…well, I confess I had some hope that they might end up together. It seemed like it would be fitting, somehow.”

Bash felt suddenly the weight of leading a young man into the world in a way he hadn’t before, as though he owed John Blythe a debt that he hadn’t earlier considered and was duty bound to repay, by giving his son the guidance that the father was not able to provide.

“We’ll make sure that his father would be proud of him.”

Marilla smiled slightly and tipped her head in the direction of the barn. “They may be foolish young people, sometimes, but I have no doubt that we will be extremely proud of them both.”


	4. The Rational Adults Say Their Piece

“Did you actually know that kissing cannot lead to…children?” Even as he asked the question, Gilbert wished he had left it alone.

Anne flushed but responded, “Yes, I did actually know that. Did you think this entire time that I thought I was risking having dozens of babies?”

Now it was Gilbert’s turn for a reddening face. “Right, that makes sense. Um, who told you then? I am getting the impression today that girls are not informed very well.”

Anne raised her chin in a bit of defiance. “I had the same impression after I was so awkwardly forced to ask you about infertility.” Gilbert shifted slightly, since that conversation was a bit less awkward before he had firmly established that the only person who would be having children with Anne was Gilbert himself. “Anyway, we girls decided we simply had to learn _somewhere_, and eventually Prissy Andrews set us straight.”

“What did she tell you?” Gilbert asked, before the two of them stared at each other briefly, wide-eyed, and realized that perhaps that conversation should wait. “You know what, never mind. I’ll assume it was…thorough.” Gilbert considered not talking for the rest of the day, since at this point he couldn’t figure out a single way out of this conversation that didn’t go in a direction he wasn’t entirely ready to follow.

Anne kindly saved him, since her adorable Gilbert was now staring down at the ground with a mixture of embarrassment and anticipation that left her with no doubt that the two of them would be just fine in this department when the right time came.

“Thank you,” she said simply, nuzzling a bit into his neck. “You defended me admirably in there.”

“I’m not going to ever let anyone sit there and talk about you like that, and certainly not Mrs. Lynde,” he replied, as though there was no need at all to suggest he had done anything even worth noting. She nodded and resumed her comfortable spot cuddled against him with a contented sigh.

Anne and Gilbert finally emerged from the barn a while later, Anne still a bit red-faced from crying (and other things) but a good deal more contented than when they had entered. They were a bit startled to find Marilla and Bash both standing like sentries on the porch.

“We aren’t going to bother talking about kissing anymore – ” Bash offered

“I think Mrs. Lynde pretty much beat that topic to death,” Gilbert muttered.

“BUT,” Bash continued, “we will be having a talk about hiding your courtship and sneaking around.” Bash hadn’t really heard or seen a single thing that day that actually gave him pause, but he was definitely going to do everything in his power to make sure that Gilbert never again behaved in a manner that would cause Mrs. Lynde to visit his home unexpectedly.

“Yes, young lady,” Marilla added, turning to Anne, “and tomorrow you are going to visit Mrs. Lynde again so that you can convince her to allow you to announce this courtship yourself. Otherwise, you know she won’t be able to resist the temptation to do it much longer and I can promise you that you will not like her telling of events.”

Much as it pained her, Anne agreed with every word that Marilla said and nodded reluctantly.

“Now, do you think the two of you can live without each other for an evening?” Now that things had settled down, Marilla was feeling rather sarcastic again. The couple nodded and exchanged a brief, meaningful look. Bash watched their stares with a long-suffering sigh. Apparently, they didn’t plan to stop doing that even though they were courting now. Wonderful.

“Uh, Bash, before we go home and you kill me,” Gilbert added, knowing full well that Bash was about to be full of opinions about this disaster of a day, “I need to do something first.” Gilbert walked over to the garden, where Matthew was still occupied with the baby.

“Normally I would let Anne do this herself since she wouldn’t want me interfering, but I didn’t want you to think that I ...didn't care ...about what happened,” Gilbert began.

Matthew nodded slightly but did not respond.

“I just wanted you to know, I would never have, um, expressed my feelings, uh, for Anne, if I wasn’t truly serious about her.” Somehow Matthew, silent as a monk most of the time, could be more intimidating than Marilla. It was truly a marvel. “I am, and I just wanted you to know that.”

Matthew gave him a gentle, reassuring look. “I never doubted you were, son. Just,” he continued, glancing up at the house, “try to keep Rachel out of it from now on?”

Gilbert let out a short breath in relief and agreed.

. . .

“What did we learn from this, Blythe?” Bash asked pointedly as they walked back home.

“Uh, don’t kiss Anne in places where Mrs. Lynde might catch us?”

“Right.” They trudged along in silence for a few moments.

“That’s it?” Gilbert says. “No other jokes at my expense?”

“Boy, I am still going to be calling you to my deathbed to make fun of you about this, don’t you worry. I might forgive you a bit today if you start by telling me exactly how you and Anne got so _friendly_.”

Gilbert smiled bashfully. “Fine, I guess I owe you that.”

“Also, you will be taking care of Dellie tonight. It’s your fault that her nap got cut short and she is sure to be a bear by supper. Besides,” he continued with a gleeful chuckle, “what better way to make sure you understand the _full consequences of your actions_?”

. . .

Marilla said nothing more about the incident while Anne helped her prepare supper, until she finally inquired as to whether Anne was in fact no longer upset. “You know how much I despair to think that so many women are ever so much lovelier than I. It was just – I couldn’t bear the thought of Gilbert loving someone with flaxen hair more than me. But it was no matter – Gilbert set me straight right away in ever so romantical a fashion!” Now that the worst parts of the day had subsided, Anne was positively bursting to say something to Marilla about how she had managed to find a beau who truly seemed to appreciate her auburn locks.

Marilla struggled to decide if she wanted to chastise Anne for saying a single word about Gilbert’s romantical …anything, and concluded finally that she truly never wanted to discuss Anne’s love life again.

“If that’s the case then fine,” she said briskly, “but you wouldn’t have ended up in that state if you weren’t so vain about looks in the first place. It’s a good thing to know that Gilbert isn’t so shallow. You’d do well to follow his lead on that one.”

“Oh he wasn’t saying that looks don’t matter, he just meant he prefers –“

“Anne, for pity’s sake, I’m begging you to please tell me no more of what Gilbert tells you in any, ah, romantical fashion.” She sighed deeply. “And go call Matthew in for supper.”

Matthew had remained out in the garden for hours, until every possible weed that had even thought to enter had been pulled. He had considered leaving his haven when he saw Anne run out of the house in tears, but when he saw Gilbert follow he thought he should give the young man a chance to solve the problem himself first. He had been relieved to see her in much better spirits when they emerged, but he was still resolved to stay exactly where he was (and out of earshot of any mention of kissing, or, heaven help him, babies) unless Anne seemed to need him in some way.

Anne slowly approached him. “Matthew,” she said, eyes pleading, “I really hope you are not too upset with me for not telling you the truth of my relationship with Gilbert earlier. It would crush my heart to know that you were disappointed in me.”

Matthew placed a tender hand on her shoulder. “All I care about is that you’re loved.” They smiled gently at each other and said no more as there was no need. Kindred spirits were like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It occurred to me that IRL, I think a couple like these two would end up being an "everything but" sort before they get married, or at least in the time between engagement and marriage. I mean, Anne isn't one for convention, Gilbert knows exactly what they can do without risking a pregnancy and stares at the girl like he'd like to swallow her whole, and they will have to wait something like EIGHT YEARS for Gilbert to be a doctor. They'd just learn to be way more discreet. :)


End file.
